--- title: Visualising the IMDb date: "2011-04-17T20:42:18Z" categories: - how-i-do-things - visualisation wp_id: 2638 description: I built a heatmap mapping IMDb ratings against vote counts to find movies I've missed. It helps me visualize popular high-rated outliers, track my viewing progress, and filter by genre to discover hidden gems outside the Top 250. keywords: [imdb, data visualization, heatmap, movie ratings, genre filtering, recommendation system] --- The [IMDb Top 250](http://www.imdb.com/chart/top), as a source of movies, dries out quickly. In my case, I’ve [seen about 175/250](http://250.s-anand.net/user/root.node@gmail.com). Not sure how much I want to see the rest. When chatting with [Col Needham](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_Needham) (who’s working his way through every movie with over 40,000 votes), I came up with this as a useful way of finding what movies to watch next. [![visualising-the-imdb-1](/blog/assets/visualisingtheimdb1.webp "visualising-the-imdb-1")](/blog/assets/visualisingtheimdb1.webp) Each box is one or more movies. Darker boxes mean more movies. Those on the right have more votes.  Those on top have a better rating. The ones I’ve seen are green, the rest are red. (I’ve seen more movies than that – just haven’t marked them green yet :-) I think people like to watch the movies on the top right – that popularity compensates (at least partly) for rating, and the number of votes is an indication of popularity. For example, [my movie pattern](http://250.s-anand.net/visual/root.node@gmail.com) tells me that I ought to see [Cidade de Deus](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/), [Inglourious Basterds](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/) and [Heat](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/) – which I knew from the [IMDb Top 250](http://250.s-anand.net/user/root.node@gmail.com), but also that I ought to cover [Kick-Ass](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/), [The Hangover](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119646/) and [Juno](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/). [![visualising-the-imdb-2](/blog/assets/visualisingtheimdb2.webp "visualising-the-imdb-2")](/blog/assets/visualisingtheimdb2.webp) It’s easy to pick movies in a specific genre as well. [![visualising-the-imdb-3](/blog/assets/visualisingtheimdb3.webp "visualising-the-imdb-3")](/blog/assets/visualisingtheimdb3.webp) Clearly, there are many more Comedy movies in the list than any other type – though Romance and Action are doing fine too. And I seem the have a strong preference for the Fantasy genre, in stark contrast to Horror. (Incidentally, I’ve given up trying to see [The Shining](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/) after three attempts. [Stephen King](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King)’s scary enough. The [novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(novel)) kept me awake checking under my bed for a week at night. Then there’s [Stanley Kubrick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_kubrick)’s style. [A Clockwork Orange](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/) was disturbing enough, but [Haley Joel Osment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haley_Joel_Osment) in the first part of [A.I.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/) was downright scary. Finally, there’s [Jack Nicholson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_nicholson). Sorry, but I won’t risk that combination on a bright sunny day with the doors open.) You can track your list at . For those who want to play with the code, it’s at . --- ## Comments - **Umar Sharief** _11 Dec 2011 7:40 am_: Great Idea... would have been much more awesome if we were able to select multiple Genres .. - **[Thejesh GN](http://thejeshgn.com)** _7 Jul 2011 7:19 am_: Love it. - **[Recommended Movies | Brian Hurley's Blog](http://purplejunction.com/2012/12/25/recommended-movies/)** _26 Dec 2012 10:34 pm_ _(pingback)_: [...] is another way to find good movies to watch you might have missed, and the link for the visualization [...]